As we roll towards the Summer, it’s important to remember that we can overthink prizing: on a hot day, a cold soda or bottle of water is amazing swag.
The first 4th of July that I had this job, I was at the appropriately named Hot 101.5 in Jacksonville. It was a temperate 10,000 degrees. The station had a hookup with Pepsi, so there was a pallet of soda in the storage room. We filled coolers with ice and Pepsi and cruised the beach, stopping and handing them out.
We. Were. Mobbed. The cost? Ice.
Jeanna Ashley, when she was at Star in Kansas City, used to do Popsicle Drops. She bought a few boxes on hot days and gave them out to seasonal workers doing landscaping and road construction. Both 95.7 Jamz in Birmingham and 97 Rock in Buffalo have done variations of this as The Road Crew.
So, if you do have the hook-up with a soft drink or bottled water company, this is a great way to shake some metaphorical hands and maybe create some fans.
And now on with the Dumpage:
Proms
One way to acknowledge proms is to get a client to give you some tanning for contesting. There was a story on-line yesterday about how May is a HUGE month for tanning places and girls (and guys) try to get their glow on for prom.
Roofs Of The Rich And Famous
I lobbed this out a couple of weeks ago, and an AE “somewhere” went and sold it to a roofing client. Post a different celebrity roof (taken from here) every day and ID the house and celeb to win whatever tickets are sitting around.
Dolly Parton’s roof:
Golf
I got my first golf request a couple of weeks ago, and then it hit with a vengeance this past week. Yesterday, in a cold driving wind of about 30 degrees, the local driving range in Forest Lake? Packed. If you’re into golf, you’re really into golf.
- Charity tourneys abound. CBS in Sacramento once did “Slice And Dice” at a casino course.
- Q-104 in Halifax did a promotion with Maxim called “Closest To The Pinhead” which had one of the morning people gearing up in a sumo outfit with a helmet and facemask, and listeners drove balls at him.
- What if you did “At The Stroke Of Midnight” and gave night vision goggles to the morning show and some listeners for a few hours of severely visually challenged golf? This has “1,000,000 YouTube hits” written all over it.
- The next level would be Blind Golf. Randomly pair two guys with two girls. The couples never see each other. With the assistance of promo staff, they golf 18 holes blindfolded.
- Here’s your next charity event.
Never Before Friday
Long before there were bucket lists, Kate McGwire at WOW Country in Boise would do Kate University and once a month go out and do something that she’d never done before, like, say, celebrating a birthday at Chuckee Cheese. But with a group of listeners who had also never experienced the thrill of having a giant rat serve you pizza. KU even had its own crest.
This could be done monthly as a Never Before Friday. As an example, Dan Hardee has never before seen The Exorcist, so he’s watching it in the conference room. If you haven’t seen it, now would be the time to do it. And even if you have, in fact, gone to McDonald’s, there will be listeners who haven’t, so it’s a good premise for some Hang (Out) Time.
Big Freaking Ballpark Organs
Baseball is back. Yea! I love baseball even though it’s usually difficult to be a Twins fan.
A few years ago, one of the Newcap stations got the rink organist and his mighty Wurlitzer from the local Major Junior league team to do his rendition of some classic rock songs. They then had the listeners ID the songs for prizes. It was actually pretty simple.
Not so simple is going to be Seventh Winning Stretch by a Hot AC station on the East Coast where the MLB team’s organist is going to do some tunes from that format.
At-Home Furry Co-Workers.
Very early in COVID, WQYK in Tampa had their suddenly-at-home workday listeners posting photos of their pets. It was a hit. Wednesday, April 22nd, is Administrative Professionals Day, and last year, a couple of stations went the pet route.
So simple, and you really don’t need a prize. Ten million pet photos are posted every day to Facebook and Instagram without an incentive.
Administrative Pawfessionals?
PPM
I was THIS close to getting a boy band, who’d been Yoko’d and were regrouping to call themselves PPM (People Playing Music) because even if their song sucked, every PD in the format would play it at least once just so they could say “PPM” on the air.
It is often customary to do moms-and-baby photo galleries for Mother’s Day. Q-104 in Cleveland called it Proud Parent Moments, or, in a few weeks, you could do Particularly Proud Mommies.
80’s Cars
97 Rock in Buffalo had an 80s event, and one of their promotional tools for the party was free VIP parking for people who drove their 80s cars to it.
